This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Have you ever found yourself listening to someone share their good news and felt pressure to respond with excitement, even if you didn't feel particularly enthusiastic? Does that pressure feel even greater when the person sharing the news is your boss?
In the workplace, sharing positive, work-related news can have very different effects on the people involved depending on where they sit in the organizational hierarchy, according to research led by Emily Poulton, an assistant professor of management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. Previous research has found that sharing this type of positive news can strengthen relationships and extend positive emotions. But Poulton's research suggests the impact of those conversations becomes more complicated when there is a power difference between the people engaging in conversation.
This research showed that a manager sharing their good news with a subordinate may boost their own mood and energy, but it can also create hidden emotional pressure for subordinates expected to respond enthusiastically. These findings are explored in the article "'That's SO interesting!': The divergent implications of supervisors' workplace capitalization for supervisors and subordinates," published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Poulton worked alongside Emma L.
Frank from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and Szu-Han (Joanna) Lin from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. The idea began during Poulton's time in graduate school. She became curious about how sharing positive news felt from the perspective of employees whose supervisors were sharing their own work-related successes.
"As a subordinate, you can't really say, 'I don't care.' You feel a certain pressure to smile, engage and be supportive, even if you're not in the mood for that conversation," Poulton said. "We know from decades of research that sharing good news is generally a positive thing. It helps people relive and extend their positive experiences.
But I started to notice that I felt a greater sense of obligation to seem interested in the conversation when the person sharing the good news was someone hierarchically above me," Poulton shared. Researchers tested their ideas across five studies, including controlled experiments and a real-world workplace study involving supervisor-subordinate pairs. "One of our favorite studies involved a fictional bookstore scenario where supervisors shared a story about receiving a tip from a customer.
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